Demo2004

I just finished participating in a great panel at Demo. The moderator was John Patrick, and I was with Greg Reinacker of NewsGator, Robert Scoble of Microsoft and Mena Trott of SixApart.

Everyone was a little nervous, but the panel went off hitch free, and the content was excellent.

Demo is a great event from the stand point of showcasing little companies with great technology.

Right now there is a mainland Chinese company called Evermore presenting. Not sure that I would be their user, but there are probably a billion Chinese who would use it. Evermore is running in Java, and the CEO just showed it running on about 4 Oses. It is an interesting model, the "lease" is $99 per year. I am not sure how much acceptance there will be for leased software.

Next up is Bloomba. There deal seems to be all about searching E-Mail, which I would love to have a better version of. There E-Mail application is pretty elegant. But what a tough deal to compete with Microsoft. There market seems to be all about competing on a stand alone basis.

When we were in the green room there were some very cool demos, particularly by a company called KeyComputing. The CEO showed a usb flash disk that totally took over someone else's computer, and allowed you to be working in a complete replica of your desktop.

The guys on stage right now are trying to make their demo work, but it isn't. What a nightmare. They are trying to recover, but it is not going well.

Next us is AllenPort. There product is a Linux based probuct that allows you to replicate your desktop on a server somewhere that will allow you to simplify your computing world. Nice Theroux quote. But 12 months off before they deliver.

Not sure why I would use this technology?

Next up is CMarket, an online charity auction technology. 300,000 per year. Simple interface, seems easy to use. Provides a nice way to engage people in this process. The product looks like blogging for charity.
Nice aggreagation of the auction model, plus E-Mail notices, etc. Reminds me of when I worked on a public TV auction and bought a dog!

Comments

[Michael Levin]

Thanks for the glimpse into the Demo conference. It's much appreciated by those of us unable to attend...this year!